Georgia calls for boycotts over new voting law

NBC’s Blayne Alexander joins ‘The News with Shepard Smith’ to talk about what’s happening in Georgia with increased calls for boycotts over the state’s new voting law. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

President Joe Biden on Friday condemned a sweeping GOP-backed election reform bill signed into law Thursday evening in Georgia that would add new identification requirements to absentee voting, limit ballot drop boxes and prohibit offering food or water to voters in line, among other provisions.

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” Biden said in a statement, comparing the legislation to the notorious voting restrictions that kept people of color from casting ballots in the South before the civil rights movement. “It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act.”

Biden told reporters Friday the White House and Justice Department are looking into what they can do regarding the law.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the 96-page bill into law Thursday evening, just hours after Republican state legislators passed the overhaul of election rules, known as S.B. 202.

Democratic state Rep. Park Cannon was arrested by Georgia state troopers on Thursday after she knocked on Kemp’s office door as he signed S.B. 202 into law.

The new election rules in Georgia come as Senate Democrats aim to pass a federal election reform bill, the For the People Act, amid a wave of Republican-backed voter restrictions proposed in state legislatures across the country.

“This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” Biden said. He said provisions of S.B. 202 “effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters.”

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement Friday that S.B. 202 expands voting opportunities because the bill increases the number of early voting days.

The debate over election integrity came to a head this year when conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud led violent pro-Trump rioters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast

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